Monica comes to us via the Berkeley Electronic Press (where she was most recently the Marketing Communications & Market Development Manager) and Highwire (where she served as the Publisher Relations rep for Sage). Monica brings to our group a terrific combination of strong outreach/marketing skills and a deep knowledge of the scholarly communications environment, from several different vantage points. She’s also well-versed in client services and seems to have hit the ground running on day one.

As the Outreach and Community Engagement Coordinator, Monica will focus primarily on supporting the scholarly communication activities of the University of California academic community, particularly as they relate to the open access publishing and distribution of scholarly works via eScholarship. She will develop strategies for increasing the visibility of eScholarship services as well as provide front line support for the faculty, students and staff who use the repository to increase the visibility of their scholarly research. Monica will also work with campus partners to attract high quality publications (journals, monograph series) to eScholarship and collaborate with the editors of those publications to ensure their success. Needless to say, we’re ecstatic to have her on board!

And for those of you with an interest in learning even more about Monica, here are a few tidbits, gleaned from a chatty lunch:

–She loves carbs.
–She was a real quitter as a child, leaving behind a trail of activities that she didn’t find compelling.
–She is a devoted runner (middle distance) and enjoys jogging with her dog Pepper.
–She is a highly skilled SET player who, vaguely uncomfortable with her prowess, mostly lets other people win.

Welcome, Monica.

]]>UC Libraries Digital Collection Project wins 2016 Sautter Awardhttp://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2016/07/15/uc-libraries-digital-collection-project-wins-2016-sautter-award/
Fri, 15 Jul 2016 21:32:52 +0000http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/?p=19526More...]]>The UC Libraries Digital Collection (UCLDC) project has won a Larry L. Sautter Golden Award for Innovation in Information Technology. The annual award, which is sponsored by the UC Information Technology Leadership Council, recognizes “collaborative innovations in IT that advance the university’s missions of teaching, research, public service and patient care, or that improve the effectiveness of university processes.” The UCLDC project is one of three Sautter Golden Award winners this year.

The project

The UCLDC project was a two­-year initiative to establish a technical pipeline for all UC Libraries to create, manage, and provide access to their digital assets. In July 2013, following four years of systemwide planning, a team based at the California Digital Library (CDL) and IST Research Technologies at UC Berkeley, in close partnership with staff members at all ten campus libraries, embarked on the project. In September 2015, the UCLDC project team released a set of three production services:

A shared digital asset management system (DAMS), based on the open-source Nuxeo platform

A metadata harvester that aggregates and indexes digital content

A user-­focused public interface (Calisphere) that provides seamless access across the entire aggregation, plus an application programming interface that allows for customization and “remix”

All three of these services are now heavily in use, resulting in broad, aggregated access to an unprecedented number of the University’s most unique and remarkable research collections.

Campus impact

The UCLDC project has helped several campus libraries significantly ramp up their digital collections programs. Since the project’s conclusion in September 2015, four libraries have become highly active users of the shared DAMS; another two campuses are currently in testing. In these first six months alone, the libraries have used the DAMS to manage 68 collections, and to subsequently publish a total of 27 of them to Calisphere—­­18 of which have never before been available online. They include, for example, UC Merced’s Dunya Ramicova collection, one of the few complete collections of costume designs by a single designer held by an academic institution; and UC Riverside’s Sabino Osuna collection, which contains rare glass plate negatives of the Mexican Revolution.

The project has also incentivized campus libraries with their own digital collections platforms to participate in the systemwide aggregation, since the harvester provides an easy way for them to extend access to their materials through Calisphere and the Digital Public Library of America. UC San Diego, for instance, has added over 80,000 items to the aggregation through the harvest in the past six months.

But campus staff provide the most compelling evidence of the impact of this project on their digital collections programs:

“Prior to the UCLDC project, the UC Merced Library did not have a system in place for managing digitized special collections or other digital assets we collect […] We needed to have an easy-­to-­use, cost-­effective system that would handle the variety of formats and complex objects in our collections. Making our content available in Calisphere, where it can be discovered alongside other rich cultural and historical content, rather than in silos, was important to us. […]The UCLDC suite addresses that full range of needs—it allows us to showcase the valuable collections for which we are stewards, with the aim of supporting the University’s three­fold mission.” – Emily Lin, Head, Digital Assets, UC Merced Library

“The UCLDC project has played an instrumental role in helping the UCR Library build and provide access to our digital collections. From the ability to effectively manage our digital assets in Nuxeo to delivering this content online through Calisphere, the UCLDC has provided us with the necessary tools to build effective and accessible digital collections for public consumption. The framework has proven essential to the UCR Library as we strive to provide greater online access to our holdings.” – Eric Milenkiewicz, Manuscript Curator, UC Riverside Library

User impact

Meanwhile, the UCLDC project has also had an impact on its ultimate audience: researchers. When the new Calisphere site was released in September, it immediately contained 400,000 objects or 70% more content than in its previous iteration (due entirely to the scalable harvest infrastructure developed). The aggregation has continued to grow quickly in the months since, notably with the participation of new and previously inactive institutions at UC and throughout the state. It now contains over half a million objects, and the rapid pace of growth is on track to continue.

California State Librarian Greg Lucas sums up the excitement around Calisphere from the end-­user perspective: “Calisphere is one of those resources that librarians, researchers and the global public have been waiting their whole lives for without even knowing it. Not only has it brought together an unparalleled array of primary source material, it has done so in a clean, easily-­searchable interface that everyone can use. Calisphere’s redesigned site is, in one word, awesome.” ­

UCLDC Project Participants

Project Implementation Team (CDL and UCB)

The project implementation team included staff at the California Digital Library (CDL) at UCOP and Research IT at UC Berkeley.

Project Collaborators (all campuses)

The team worked closely with staff across the UC Library system to refine requirements and test and provide feedback on all aspects of the product. Input was formally coordinated through the following two groups, but many additional individuals throughout the UC Libraries contributed their time and expertise to the project.

Through the generous support of theAndrew W. Mellon Foundation, the University of California Press (UCP) and the California Digital Library (CDL) have embarked on a project to build an open source platform for content and workflow management of book-length works. The goal of the project is to create a shared resource for presses and library publishers to automate book production in multiple formats using a versatile, web-based production workflow system.

UCP and CDL sought a highly flexible open source platform that could be easily adopted by other publishers. CKF began development on its PubSweet technology framework in October 2015 and early versions of key components are discoverable onGitLab. The platform is component-based, which means that it can be assembled in many different ways to meet the needs of book or journal workflows.

“We are deeply impressed by the dedication that CKF is bringing to reimagining the tools used in the production and dissemination of scholarship. The CKF methodology begins with collaboration—on product design as well as publishing process,” said Erich van Rijn, Director of Publishing Operations at the University of California Press. “The project, calledEditoria, will support a robust book production system for academic publishers and library publishing programs that seek a low-cost and efficient mechanism for streamlining their book-publishing activities. The platform will be open source and able to be configured for many different publishing workflows.”

CKF, UCP and CDL are taking a collaborative approach to product design and development and will be launching a site to make this methodology transparently available to the public in the coming weeks. TheEditoriaproject will progress through 2016 with a launch in early 2017.

CDL is delighted to announce that Adrian Turner has won the prestigious Archival Award of Excellence from the California Historical Records Advisory Board. Adrian received the award in recognition of his exceptional dedication to and leadership in removing barriers to online access to California’s archival collections.

Many of the state’s archives, libraries, and museums still face formidable challenges in processing, describing, and digitizing their collections. Since 2002, through his work on the Online Archive of California (OAC), Calisphere and related initiatives, Adrian has worked relentlessly to reduce these challenges. He has envisioned and championed the development of tools and services—such as his brainchild, RecordEXPRESS—that have made it easier for institutions to provide access to their collections. And he has played a central role in a dizzying array of projects at the state and national levels, all with the aim of aggregating and connecting more content. His efforts have had a transformative effect on the archival community within California and well beyond.

But ask any California archivist about Adrian, and what you are most likely to hear is a personal account of his unflagging enthusiasm in helping them advance their digital agenda. Adrian truly goes above and beyond in his day-to-day support of the OAC’s hundreds of contributors, dropping everything to help troubleshoot a technical issue or strategize on a grant project.

Adrian has made it his personal mission to help collecting institutions of all shapes and sizes in California share their treasures with the world. In recent years, he has–quietly and with characteristic humility–made tremendous strides in accomplishing that mission. CDL is pleased that the California Historical Records Advisory Board has recognized his important work.

Congratulations, Adrian!

]]>UC OA Policy webinar: Publication Harvester goes live!http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2014/10/10/uc-oa-policy-webinar-publication-harvester-goes-live/
Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:42:04 +0000http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/?p=16552More...]]>With the University of California Open Access Policy entering its second phase of implementation, faculty at all ten UC campuses will now be required to submit their publications to eScholarship in compliance with the policy. That means we can all count on a surge of faculty questions and requests for help in the next few months!

Recently, Catherine Mitchell and Justin Gonder from the California Digital Library led a 90-minute webinar to provide more information about the OA Policy and its latest implementation, including:

An in-depth introduction to the new publication harvesting system for the three pilot campuses: UC Irvine, UCLA, and UCSF

A demo of the manual deposit tools available to all UC campuses

An exploration of resources to support the policy and outreach efforts

A Q&A session to clarify any lingering questions

The 90-minute webinar was held during Open Access Week. The link to the recorded webinar is below.

You may also be interested in exploring the Office of Scholarly Communication site at uc-oa.info for resources and information about the policy and the wiki collaboration point for campus-generated outreach materials.

]]>First Open-Access Digital Book from New Serieshttp://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2013/08/14/first-open-access-digital-book-from-new-series/
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 17:53:49 +0000http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/?p=14249More...]]>eScholarship is delighted to announce the California Classical Studies (CCS) monographic series, a Mellon-funded, open access monograph publishing program focused on peer-reviewed, long-form scholarship in the field of Classics. CCS has just released its first book – The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy – which is freely available in eScholarship and for sale as a print-on-demand title. Read more below:

From Donald Mastronarde, Melpomene Professor of Classics at University of California, Berkeley and Editorial Board Chair, California Classical Studies

California Classical Studies is pleased to announce the publication of a digital edition of Leslie Kurke, The Traffic in Praise: Pindar and the Poetics of Social Economy, a reprint with corrections of the edition of 1990. The book is available as a Print on Demand paperback ($29.95) and may be read in page view at the open-access eScholarship repository operated by the California Digital Library of the University of California. In addition, thanks to the support of a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and of endowed funds at the University of California, the short embargo period has been waived to celebrate the first title published in the series, and so the full PDF is also downloadable immediately at the repository. It is expected that the title will also be sold in ePub format in the near future.

The editors of California Classical Studies are eager to receive submissions of long-form scholarship for peer-review, including hybrid works that include an extended textual element suitable for printing along with associated files to be offered in digital form only. The series aims to disseminate basic research (editing and analysis of primary materials both textual and physical), data-heavy research, and highly specialized research. For more about the profile of the series and the process of submission, please visit http://calclassicalstudies.org.

]]>CDL Welcomes Katrina Romanowskyhttp://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2013/06/28/cdl-welcomes-katrina-romanowsky/
Fri, 28 Jun 2013 21:32:53 +0000http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/?p=13888More...]]>CDL welcomes Katrina Romanowsky to the CDL as the new eScholarship Community & Outreach Manager for the Access & Publishing team. Katrina’s is a crucial new position for this group, working closely with Justin Gonder to ensure that publishing and repository services are closely matched to user needs and responsive to the shifting terrain of scholarly communications. In addition to assisting with tickets and feature requests, Katrina will focus particularly on establishing strategies for building robust user communities and support infrastructure around eScholarship, for both current contributors and those for whom eScholarship is, as yet, unknown. This task should prove exciting and challenging, particularly within the setting of the UC Open Access policy implementation project we have just begun.

Katrina comes to us from the Berkeley Electronic Press. As a Consulting Services Team Manager at bepress, Katrina was responsible for leading a client services group, training repository administrators and journal editors on the bepress system, supervising communications between the consulting services team and institutional clients, and facilitating cross-client interactions within the Digital Commons user community – among many other things. Prior to her time at bepress, Katrina was employed in the registrar’s office at Antioch University Santa Barbara and as a digital editor at Scratchgravel Publishing Services, Auburn, Washington. She has a B.A. in English from Westmont College.

Katrina is an avid reader and GoodReads participant. Welcome, Katrina!

Please join us in welcoming Katie Fortney to the CDL as our new Copyright Management Officer.

Some of you may already know Katie from her previous incarnation as Collection Development Librarian and Scholarly Communication Officer at UC Santa Cruz, where she: chaired UCSC’s Scholarly Communication and Intellectual Property team; created educational resources and training sessions for faculty, staff and students on the legal and practical issues related to open access publishing, fair use, data archiving, metadata copyright, and database license issues; and proved an invaluable advisor to the Grateful Dead Archive Online project team and Library Special Collections on the copyright, trademark, and privacy issues unique to that collection. At the CDL, Katie will focus on many of the same activities in support of systemwide services and initiatives, including the Open Access policy, eScholarship publishing services, data management and curation, digital special collections risk management, copyright education, and national/international copyright and scholarly communication legislation and policy issues.

Katie comes to this work with a strong background in both law (JD, New York University) and library science (MLIS, San Jose State University) – and with the uniquely beneficial perspective of someone who has worked in the trenches of a UC campus.

Over the past few months, we’ve redesigned the eScholarship homepage and informational pages to enable us to highlight important events within the scholarly communications environment and new services within UC’s eScholarship repository and Open Access publishing platform. This new site includes feature stories, faculty interviews, popular research lists, and a refined navigational system to help faculty, students and librarians move easily through our various service offerings. Note: All publication pages remain unchanged and will be redesigned in consultation with our publishing community in the next phase of this work.

This month, we’re highlighting the following stories in eScholarship:

UCSF’s Open Access policy: Learn about the recent passage of a campus-wide Open Access policy for all faculty journal articles and our work in supporting the implementation of the policy.

Public Knowledge Project Partnership: CDL has signed on as one of PKP’s major development partners, working specifically to refine the Open Journals System (OJS) platform that provides peer review and manuscript management workflows for journal publishing.

eScholarship PLUS: We are now providing eBook and Print-On-Demand production, distribution and sales services for book series and journals featured in eScholarship. Learn more!

We are eager for your feedback on this new site and encourage you to contact us with any thoughts at help@escholarship.org

]]>Your Faculty is Publishing in Open Access!http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/2012/04/25/your-faculty-is-publishing-in-open-access/
Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:05:54 +0000http://www.cdlib.org/cdlinfo/?p=11584More...]]>What do “Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change” and “The World Distribution of Household Wealth” have in common? They’re both UC faculty-published articles on UC’s flourishing open access platform, eScholarship. eScholarship supports the publication of UC-affiliated conference papers, articles, books and journals representing a vast range of academic disciplines and departments. As of the end March 2012, eScholarship included 45,766 individual publications and 55 journals from across the University of California system.

Launched in 2002, eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services and research tools that enable departments, research units, publishing programs, and individual scholars associated with the University of California to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship. To learn more about helping your faculty and colleagues participate in this exciting open access service, contact your campus Scholarly Communications Officer or Justin Gonder at the CDL (help@escholarship.org).